Skip to content

Seniors centre needs new roof

District of Houston contributing $10,000 toward project
29834272_web1_220727-HTO-houston.seniors.centre
The seniors centre needs a new roof and the District of Houston is providing a $10,000 grant to help pay for the project. (Anqelique Houlihan photo)

The Houston Senior Citizens Association is getting $10,000 from the District of Houston to help replace the roof of the seniors centre.

In its request for monetary help, seniors assciation president Ted Metz noted that the full replacement cost is $22,000 and comes at a time when the COVID pandemic had affected its normal operations.

The District’s financial contribution comes from its grant-in-aid program because council had already decided to close down a one-off $100,000 program for local organizations and groups affected by the pandemic. Money remained in the account.

This year’s grant-in-aid program budget is $25,000 with $2,681 already spent on a $1,000 University of Northern British Columbia bursary, $1,000 toward Ukrainian humanitarian relief and $681.57 for promotional leisure facility passes.

“The remaining approximately $22,000 budgeted for grants in aid is currently unallocated,” corporate services deputy director Madelaine Swift.

“Should council wish to approved the request in full …. it would exceed the amout budgeted for grants-in-aid left for 2022 and would require allocating money from the District’s COVID-19 Safe Restart funds.”

In addition to approving the $10,000 from the grants-in-aid program, council is also asking its staff to review the grants-in-aid policy which was crafted in 2003.

“Council may wish to direct stff to review the policy and provide recommendations for updating and clarifying the process for further consideration,” said Swift.

“This will help ensure grants-in-aid requests are taken into consideration during the District’s annual budget planning process in an effective manner.”